INEOS starts shipping US shale gas to Europe

Swiss petrochemicals giant INEOS has started shipping shale gas from the US to Europe.

It has built two storage tanks in Europe to receive the gas – one in Rafnes in Norway and the other in Grangemouth in Scotland.

The INEOS Intrepid – the world’s largest Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) multi-gas carrier (pictured) – left the Markus Hook terminal near Philadelphia today and is heading to Norway, which has a storage capacity of up to 30,000 tonnes.

It is carrying 27,500 cubic metres of US shale gas ethane, cooled to -90ºC for the journey and is expected to take nine to 10 days.

Jim Ratcliffe, Chairman and Founder of INEOS said: “This is an important day for INEOS and Europe. We know that shale gas economics revitalised US manufacturing and for the first time Europe can access this important energy and raw material source too.”